The final month of this season will fly by, I think. And before I know it, I’ll be writing my first Spring 2023 posts. Along with the seasonal shows that I’ve already picked, I’m very eager to finally watch the one out-of-season show that I’ve already chosen for myself; there was no Twitter poll this time around. No revealing what it is just yet, but it’s something I’ve been meaning to watch for a long time, since I’ve seen and heard so much about it on my social media feeds. It’s not a recent show either, so you’ll be seeing some 4:3 images in my reviews of it as well. But let’s move on to what is going on now.
Tomo-chan is a Girl! Episode 9
Well…this episode happened.
Things went in a very different direction this week, focusing far more on Carol and Misaki. The two of them are secondary in the show, but this episode shows us that the two aren’t just filler characters to make up space for the Tomo x Jun ship.
A lot of people are going to look at this and only see their relationship at face value perhaps, but Carol and Misaki’s ship has far more in common with Tomo and Jun’s than some may think. Much like Jun has to Tomo, Misaki has developed his own impression of who Carol is: always smiling and cheerful in an angelic way. Misaki’s decision to go to Tomo’s family dojo was him trying to prove himself as a strong man to her, but as Tomo tells him, there are many kinds of strengths that people look for, and not just brute force. The crush that he developed on Carol is exactly the kind any high-schooler might have; she has become his entire world, and so trying to please her and get her to acknowledge him is something Misaki has been trying to do ever since they met.
This week’s episode ends with Carol and Misaki sailing off into the sunset, as a result of someone else forcing Carol to drop her happy-go-lucky face, but the same thing can’t exactly happen to Tomo and Jun. It’s been 9 episodes now, and I still can’t think of what it’ll take for Jun to finally make a move. One thing he and Misaki do have in common though is their own lack of self-confidence. Both of them feel pathetic when they compare themselves to Tomo, and this “I’m not strong enough for her to acknowledge me!” thing needs to be resolved.
Misuzu tries to play the misanthropic love doctor once again this week, by telling two different stories to the two of them, to not get Carol in a vulnerable state but to poke Misaki into actually doing something. I think it was noteworthy how Carol told her that things won’t always go her way, which sees Misuzu break her own ice queen persona for once. Maybe in the episodes that we have left, there will be one that is more focused on her, as right now her ice queen love doctor persona still feels a little two-dimensional. What has made her to be like this? And how does she really feel about the people around her?
NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a Episode 6
I should say first that A-1 Pictures have not actually given any notification on how NieR: Automata Ver 1.1a will go on for. They had to take a three-week long break because of an outbreak, but outside of that there has been no real indication of whether this will be just a one-cour show, or will be something that will maybe span many seasons, telling the story from different perspectives. With Yoko Taro in the production team for this, literally anything could happen at this point.
Just as this week’s episode of Tomo-chan is a Girl! focuses on a secondary character, this weeks’ Ver 1.1a is a flashback story of resistance leader Lily, and how she came to be the one in charge.
This may be a one-shot episode – a flashback story filler – but it does a very good job at telling a tale featuring characters we will never see again, and making us really feel for them all. From the resistance fighters a much younger Lily was a part of, to the YoRHa unit they encounter (which includes a No. 2 model, the same as 2B). When the younger Lily is suddenly hit with the Logic Virus (we’ll see more of that later, by the way), we get to see the pain from all sides; both hers and of the comrades who are trying to restrain her and administer a vaccine and memory reset.
As a younger anime follower, I had been fairly skeptical of one-shot episodes like this that sometimes steer away from the main story, and I knew I wasn’t alone in thinking it. But one-shots and flashbacks like these develop the story even more in all sorts of ways. Lily had been a bit of a two-dimensional character of her own, but we get to see a much different side of her now. In this present time, she has become jaded and disillusioned; being on the battlefield for this long has no doubt done this to her. But she had have been a goner if it weren’t for the aid and compassion that her former unit and the YoRHa soldiers gave her.
While the main theme of this week’s episode was whether androids ‘dream’ or not, I noticed something else. It was worth noting how, in the final stages of their mission, the four YoRHa soldiers didn’t receive any backup from the Bunker. While this is a flashback story, it’s clear to see how not just the Bunker but the humans on the Moon feel about their soldiers. Expendable, and in the YoRHa soldiers’ case especially, replaceable. Time has passed, and I think that the Commander on the Bunker is beginning to feel differently about the soldiers under her command, but this whole idea of soldiers being expendable is something that can be reflected in today’s time. I won’t go too much into a philosophical discussion about war and soldiers in what is meant to be a weekly seasonal anime column though, but perhaps you understand where I’m going with this…
This week’s episode brings something that has been sorely lacking in the show so far: emotional storytelling. To those of us who have played and completed the game, we know the kind of people 2B, 9S and the others are, but until now that has not been reflected so much in this adaptation. The final part of the show teases what we will see next, and I’m looking forward to how this show will tell that part of the story.
In/Spectre Season 2 Episode 9
Continuing from where we left off in what is in my eyes the most interesting arc in In/Spectre so far: how can a hotel conglomerate prove to his family that he was responsible for killing his wife and their mother with the help of an ayakashi. I’m enjoying this one especially as it doesn’t directly involve a supernatural being; instead it centers around the impact and consequences of humans turning to the world of spirits and the supernatural. Perhaps this man, who is already terminally ill, could be seen as a pariah of sorts. But as we also see, Kotoko has become more well-known in the human circle than she realized.
And even though the supernatural is not directly involved here, it’s plain to see that she is loving every second of all this. Shooting down these humans with facts and logic is something she just revels in. And these facts and logic show us something that we really should have seen when they first met: the husband wasn’t the only one who wanted his wife dead. Being senior and high-profile members of an obscenely rich family when someone dies can sometimes mean only one thing: the culprit is the one who fights for the most inheritance. But as we watch this week’s episode, it goes far beyond that.
The beginning of this story arc shows that the father wants to prove to his family that he was the one behind the murder, despite having a solid alibi. He isn’t exactly planning on atoning for his sins, but instead hopes that the rest of his family won’t have to turn to malicious and powerful spirits that grant wishes like he did. While granddaughter Rion had no part in all of this (and is only there to represent her father), the other two let slip that they had plans of their own to have the mother killed. But not solely for inheritance, as I initially thought; she really was ruining the family business, and so they thought putting her out of the picture would solve all their problems. They just didn’t think an ayakashi sent by their father would beat them to it.
You really do have to feel for poor Rion here, who has just found out that her father, her aunts and uncles, and her grandfather all had separate plots to kill off her grandmother. But as this arc is not over yet, I’m curious to know what role she will play in this. She is already annoyed with Kotoko for even suggesting something like this would happen. And though the father doesn’t want the rest of his family to turn to the supernatural, will Kotoko bring it up anyway? She certainly seems very keen to talk dirty in this season, especially when it comes to her nocturnal activities with Kuro. That was something season 1 never had, and so I just find it a little amusing it’s suddenly been brought up here.
Dorohedoro Episode 9
I think the person who suggested I watch this show said to me that it’s probably not the best idea to watch while eating. Well episode 9 proves just that. The previous episode had Caiman sneak back off into the Sorcerer’s realm on his own vengeance mission, leaving Nikaido behind. And his arrival just so happens to coincide with an important festival for the Sorcerer’s: Blue Night, where they look for new partners. While Noi is very eager to carry on being Shin’s partner, someone else has other plans, and while poor Fujita panics over whether anyone will apply to be his partner or not, he discovers in the end that the only application he received was from Ebisu. But the more worrying thing now is that Nikaido has been found out by En. They find evidence she was the one behind the destruction of the magic shop, which causes En to put together a voodoo doll. So now Nikaido is stuck with a giant mushroom growing on her back…again.
I think one thing that does bug me about Dorohedoro is that it doesn’t matter how many episodes pass; we are still no closer to a conclusion. It often feels like one sub-plot is replaced by another; there are even times where a sub-plot overlaps with another and forms a bigger one. I worry that we are drifting further and further from the original mission of vengeance, and that a mixture of wild aesthetics and compassionate antagonists have distracted us from the main story. It sucks having to say that too, as the show looks amazing and the character design is on point. The Sorcerers have just become people we cheer on now. They may be murder-crazy psychopaths with twisted imaginations, but they are all psychopaths we have grown to love. And they have almost overshadowed Caiman’s plight and Nikaido’s Sorcerer secret. I would typically say that is a bad thing, but these Sorcerers have become so fun to watch, I can’t help it.
We had some very strong episodes this week across the board. This season will be wrapping up soon, and main plots will be resolved before we decide we’ve had enough of these shows and are itching to see what the spring will give us. My new job has meant I’ve felt far more positive about things now, and so when my spring season comes, I hope that the shows I picked will be worth it. I’m pretty sure they will though; decided to stick with the subgenres I know and love this time. Don’t fix what’s not broken, you know…